Don't Fear the Reaper
Thesis: The reaper scavenges the earth in search for sorrow. He is in search for those who experience grief and disappear without hope of any happiness. In a particular case, there was a boy. This boy grew up with a numb taste of the sense of family. His parents drank, and the father would beat this boy every occasion he was angry. The boy’s mother was abused for years by the torment of the father. One night the father kicked open the boy’s bedroom door and lashed out his belt. The boy then screamed as the father unleashed havoc. This particular night, the boy notices an unusual black dress in the corner of the room. He thought nothing of it. Weeks ensued and as the beating continued he would move in closer. The third month the reaper sat on top of the toy box, turned sideways so the boy caught profile of his shadowy hood. The boy finally asked, “Why are you here?” The reaper replied “to watch.” The boy finally caught glimpse of the eyes; blue orbs in a bleached skull. The boy replied, “To watch what?” There was a small silence. “Over you child” the reaper responded. The boy saw the reaper every Wednesday night. The two spoke about the afterlife and why things the way they were. As dawn peaked the sunlight would touch his black robe, turning it blinding white. Time continued to pass, as this boy was eventually moved into foster care. He eventually moved in with happy with a new family. The parents of the new family were unable to have a child of their own. The boy lived happy with the new family and eventually became a man. Every Wednesday the reaper would still return, as usual. As the boy grew older, he decided that he would become a physician as his adopted father was. The man took a job at a morgue; perfect place for the reaper and the man to coexist. The visits from the reaper continued and the man had habituated to the regular visits. The reaper would still be around Wednesday nights helping the man with his new career. After every departure, the reaper stood in the corner simply waiting to do his job. Suddenly the man’s foster mother got into a car accident. This was the woman who saved him from his terrible childhood. The man needed to tag and close the drawer on. The reaper sensed the pain in the man’s soul, watching his adopted mother move on. The reaper stuck around in the corner of the storage room. Holding his skeletal hand was a little girl with green eyes and brown hair. The reaper nodded to the man, and he knew that he would take care of her. His real dad drove into a storefront while drunk while his real mom drank herself into an early grave. The man could still remember the screams as the reaper dragged his father through the floor, a red hot chain with a metal collar around his neck. As for his real mother, the man pitied her as the reaper informed him that her soul had been broken as she died in pain. Four years later, the man’s foster father died in his sleep. As the man closed the drawers on his foster father he saw the reaper fading into transparency with a little boy with dark hair and blue eyes. He knew that his foster father would be safe. The foster parents gave this boy a home; a place to feel safe. The reaper is a gentle being with a dreadful job. His purpose is not to bring sorrow, yet to help people grow from it. The reaper showed the boy that love still exists even if one was born into a world of chaos. Don’t fear the reaper because after all, people can be the real monsters.